Not Feelin’ It Today

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Feb 162015
 

Greetings and salutations readers! Welcome to this week’s blog.

So what’s better? Not writing anything because you have nothing to say, or writing something specifically about how you have nothing to say? That’s today’s quandary.

Obviously I went with the latter. Why? Because I think good writing comes from practice. So even if I have nothing to say, at least I’m getting some practice in telling you.

In a similar train of thought, what’s better? Not reading anything or reading something that’s about nothing? I suppose that depends greatly on whether you like to read or not. If you like to read and were given the choice, I imagine you’d opt for the latter. If you’re the type who only reads when it’s necessary and even then, begrudgingly so, then you’re better off picking the former, lest you get cheesed off.

Final question, if you could go back in time to before you clicked on the link to this week’s blog, knowing fully that it was about nothing, would you still click on the link? Seeing as you’re reading this, I’m guessing you don’t have time traveling abilities. 🙂

Anyhoo, that’s all for this week. Have a good seven and we’ll do it all again next Monday! Carja V.

 

So The Bandits Found a…?

 Carja's Corner  No Responses »
Feb 092015
 

Greetings and salutations travelers. Welcome to this week’s blog. Let’s dive right in, shall we?

So how about that Bandits strip reveal? How many of you had guessed that they were going to find a baby in the pickle patch? Now that the reveal is in the past, I can talk a bit more about the ideas behind the new feature.

As I said in a prior blog, the new strip is inspired by recent events, namely, my friends Fab and Lyne giving birth (from what I hear, Lyne did most, if not all, of the birthing) to their son Owen Alfani. The idea started bouncing around in my head a few months after they announced Lyne was pregnant. I wanted to time it so that the reveal would occur the day Owen was born, but that didn’t pan out. The reveal was actually drawn the day after Owen was born (which was about a week and a half before he was officially due by the by. I thought I still had time!).

But why the Bandits? Well really why not? I’ve been using the Bandits in side gags for a while now and I’ve grown rather fond of them, so I decided I would give them a storyline of their own. By making their storyline a separate feature I can go on for as long as I like and at whatever pace I feel the story dictates without interfering with the main strip.

Also, there’s a certain synergy with the Bandits. The baby who inspired this storyline is named Owen. The Bandits’ names are Nolan, Wilson and Clive. I’ll leave you all to connect the dots. It may give some of you a hint as to what the baby bandit will be named.

Timeline-wise, the Baby Bandit storyline occurs roughly six months after strip #300, which was on Todrick’s birthday. Bear in mind that strip #300 was an interlude and actually happens AFTER the events of the current storyline in the main strip, which started close to two months after Todrick’s PREVIOUS birthday, and concludes roughly six months after that. Confused yet? Here’s how it breaks down (the numbers in brackets are the number of months between events):

Todrick’s Birthday (2) Start of Current Storyline (4) End of Current Storyline at New Year’s (6) Todrick’s Birthday (6) Baby Bandit Storyline

Because I want to keep the main strip roughly in line with in the time of year it is in real life, at the conclusion of the current storyline we’re going to skip ahead to whatever time of the year it is (which won’t be before April at the earliest) after Baby Bandit. That means that exactly one strip (#300) occurs in the 16+ months that will pass between the conclusion of the current storyline and the beginning of the next one. This would be a great opportunity to make some changes without necessarily having to depict them in the strip, like say Chae moving to Bree. Actually, I may decide to tell that story as the next storyline, I haven’t decided yet.

Okay, I’m getting hungry so that concludes this week’s post. Have a good seven and we’ll do it all again next Monday! Carja V.

It’s the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown…

 Carja's Corner  No Responses »
Feb 022015
 

Greetings and welcome reader. I’m glad you could make it as I discuss the week that was and the week that will be.

I am dreadfully tired today. On Saturday I started playing Batman: Arkham Origins, which is one of the nifty games I received for Christmas. I got engrossed in the story and didn’t go to bed until way past midnight (like two to three hours past). Now this wouldn’t be such a bad thing if I hadn’t had to wake up after only five hours of sleep to go to the bathroom. Once I was up, I was up and with Sunday night being our Super Bowl party at Fab’s, I didn’t get to bed until late on Sunday.

So what about that Super Bowl huh? The ending was a thriller for certain. My brain went with New England and my heart went with Seattle so my brain gets bragging rights this year. Oh but if they had only run the ball.

Okay, that’s it for the football talk. Sorry for the misleading title but there is no Peanuts news in this blog.

My new Age of Animus work schedule looks like this:

Monday – Write a blog
Tuesday – Layout and sketch first comic
Wednesday – Finish first comic and start layout and sketch for second comic
Thursday – Finish second comic
Friday – Start work on a mash-up
Saturday – Finish the mash-up
Sunday – Layout, sketch and draw a Bandits comic

Those are the minimums I want to get done each day. If I get ahead on one day, like say I push and do the Bandits comic on Saturday, that leaves the next day free to relax or get further ahead (usually I take it easier). With this new schedule I don’t feel as burnt out as I did when I tried to do all my drawing over the weekend. Good for me!

So what did the Bandits discover in the first strip of their new feature? Any guesses? All will be revealed in this week’s installment. Check in on Friday to find out.

No Skylanders news this week other than I picked up the last of the minis from wave 1 and the original Jawbreaker. Not the most exciting purchases, but I went to Wal-Mart hoping for Wave 3 Skylanders and didn’t want to come home empty-handed so I picked up what I was missing from what they had.

That concludes this week’s post. Have a good seven and we’ll do it all again next Monday! Carja V.

Looking Forward to Taking on the Empire

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Jan 192015
 

Boy! Those seven days just passed by in a blur! It’s already blog time again! Let me see what blogginess I have to blog today as I talk about the week that was and the week that will be.

It feels weird not having flashbacks to draw. I did draw the third strip for the new Bandits feature. That’s my usual buffer so I’m good to go. The last flashback goes up this Friday. The Pickle Patch Bandits take over Fridays starting next week! They’ve been around for a while, but I’m still trying to get a handle on how to draw Wilson and Clive (the pig and the rooster). Nolan looks just like Tomaw, so I’ve got him mostly figured out. There might be some unevenness as the strips move along. I suspect that the feature will run through a good portion of 2015 at least so there will be room for experimentation. No doubt the later strips will look better than the earlier ones (or at least I hope they will).

I bought Imperial Assault over the weekend. It’s the latest Star Wars board game release from Fantasy Flight Games. Greatly influenced by their Descent line of games, it’s a scenario-based campaign style game where one player controls the Imperial faction against a group of up to four players running Rebel characters. There are mission objectives for both sides which will be used to determine the winning side. This in turn will determine what the next story mission will be. With side missions thrown in the mix, you can theoretically play through the campaign several times and not play the same missions. Expansion packs will only add to the replay value. It looks like a lot of fun and I can’t wait to bring it to the gaming table. If all goes well, that will be this Saturday.

Originally I went out looking for the new Skylanders adventure packs but stops at Toys R Us, EB Games and Target were all fruitless. Then on Saturday I got a message from a friend who said he found them at Microplay. That was a kick to the gut since I had no way to get out there that day. I might have a lead on getting them. If not, I hope they’ll still be available when I get the chance to go. Trap Team has been more difficult to keep up with compared to previous games. That said, I’m already curious about what’s next for the franchise. The tech introduced in each game has been fascinating and it’s hard to conceive how they can top themselves.

Okay, that’s all the blog I’ve got in me for this week. Have a good seven and we’ll do it all again next Monday! Carja V.

Another Week, Another Blog

 Carja's Corner  No Responses »
Jan 122015
 

Hello. Monday has rolled its way around again, all too soon in my estimation, and it’s time to talk about the week that was and the week that will be.

I’d like to start this week’s blog with a happy birthday wish to my niece, Kayla, who turned 15 on Sunday. Fifteen…I remember when she was just a little sprout like it was yesterday. The time sure does fly.

I had a lighter drawing workload this week which was a welcome change of pace. I’ve now switched to trying to get my Funnies strips drawn during the week, leaving me with a mash-up to draw over the weekend and the new feature strip (which I have a small lead on). I’m liking this new schedule as my weekends feel freer.

Despite this free time, my video game consoles got no play time this weekend. I’m sure they’re sad about that. I thought I might play a little on Sunday, but I got sidetracked with online searches for Skylanders and board gaming news amongst other things. I did get a little gaming in, with a game of Elder Sign with my mom on Friday. We played for the first time with the Unseen Forces expansion I got for Christmas. It ramps up the difficulty a notch. Things started off really bad for us, but we managed to get a mix of adventures that gave us some time to breathe. We were able to recover and pulled off the win rather easily. My mom has surprisingly really gotten into Elder Sign. I’m glad I took the chance to try it with her.

In addition to Elder Sign on Friday, I played Fantasy on Saturday night. Fantasy is a card game I got for my birthday a few years back but never got around to playing. I brought it to the table because it’s French and one of the friends I was with doesn’t speak English which tends to disqualify a good deal of my collection that is language intensive. It’s simple and plays quickly and well, but there’s nothing to really grab you. It’s good for a night of light gaming when people are burnt out on lengthy complicated games.

That’s all for this installment. Have a good seven and we’ll do it all again next Monday! Carja V.

Abi

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